Early Essays and The Study of Ethics: A Syllabus (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 485 view in relation to Kant and the moral roots of religion and with some reference to the classic rationalist tradition, Lauer moves to close defense of his conclusion that for Hegel one and the same truth is "given" in religion but known in philosophy. "In religion man believes in God, but only in philosophy can know what God (in whom he believes) is." As a whole, then, Hegel and the Philosophy of Religion has a breadth and variety that can at once appeal to diverse interests in the history of philosophy and attest to Hegel's pivotal and continuing influence. LOYD D. EASTON Ohio Wesleyan University Early Essays and The Study of Ethics: A Syllabus. By John Dewey. (Vol. IV of The Early Works, 1893-1894.) With an Introduction by Wayne A. R. Leys. (Carbondale , Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1971. Pp. xxiv+373. $16) This is by far the most important and interesting of the volumes published by the Dewey Research Staff at Carbondale. It deals with the emergence of the "real" Dewey under the impact of Darwin, James, and several others, who suddenly aroused him to the significance of emotions and interests as the central factors in human experience, and as the bases for an experimental science of education and morals. Several of his most important writings from these critical years have been literally buried; this is especially true of The Study o/ Ethics: A Syllabus, which is a very rare book, but which is Dewey's first formulation of his biological interpretation of human experience and conduct. The attentive reader can catch some of the excitement and enthusiasm of these years when he reads the few introductory lines to the hastily prepared Syllabus: The present pages . . . undertake (amid the prevalence of pathological and moralistic ethics) . . . a theory which conceives of conduct as the normal and free living of life as it is.... They undertake a thorough psychological examination of the process of active experience , and a derivation from this analysis of the chief ethical types and crises--a task, so far as I know, not previously attempted. (p. 221) The attempt to make of education and ethics genuinely experimental "natural sciences" was certainly an "ethical crisis" in Dewey's development, as well as the beginning of what today is commonly recognized as "behavioral science." Dewey's essays on the emotions, "the superstition of necessity," "the chaos in moral training," "ethics and politics," and other excited expressions of the new biological interpretations of "active experience" have remained in the obscurity of their first publications. Bringing them together for the convenience of a generation to whom they are unknown is a great public service and makes exciting reading even today. HERBERT W. SCHNEIDER Claremont Graduate School The Philosophy of India and Its Impact on American Thought. By Dale Riepe. Edited by Marvin Farber. (Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1970. Pp. xv+339. $17.75) Dale Riepe, in the Introduction to his book, The Philosophy of India and Its Impact on American Thought, summarily states the main trends he intends to develop ...